A good friend’s kids and grandkids treated him to a luxury suite at Saturday’s Battlehawks game. A few of us from his generation got invited along as guests.
As at every sporting event, we walked through metal detectors. The machine made funny noises and flashed lights and my friend Bob, walking right behind me, got pulled over by the attendant.
I smiled. Bob hadn’t set off the machine, no, my 35 day old new Internal Defibrillator raised the alarm. Alas, the late-teen halfway watching the machine reached the incorrect conclusion. After a minute of checking pockets and walking through again Bob joined me.
Now, since we were a VIP group none of us had tickets. The granddaughter in charge had a code on her phone. A concierge appeared and walked us to the private suite level. I never got asked my name and while I knew several of the rest of the group, I didn’t know some, including the nice young lady with the code. Indeed, late in the first half a different young lady sat next to us. She took the beer I offered and then overshared about her life. Checking later we learned that my friend’s kids thought she was my friend while I thought she was a friend of the family. No, just like a stray cat, she wandered in for free food and drink.
Kind of a Wedding Crashers moment.
It turns out even at the Presidential level security isn’t what it ought to be. For example, a reporter from The Atlantic – post Signal gate – called Donald Trump’s personal cellphone number and got a phone interview. That seems too easy, even less work than stealing a purse under the noses of a Secret Service security detail.
Anyway, while we worship the myth that security measures protect us the reality is much, much less sure. We live in an unsafe world.
Here under capitalism that creates opportunities for companies to sell us identity theft protection. We buy it because we know supposedly secure systems and networks get breached every day.
Yet no one offers guarantees on our safety. Court cases (along with my personal experience) attest that law enforcement has no sure obligation to investigate any crime, the police work for the collective safety not the individual.
On the national front many things are going to get very dicey. Milk, produce and meat inspections are being cutback. The Environmental Protection Agency plans to do less to watch air and water quality. Labor laws will have fewer enforcers. And, federal law enforcement has been charged with prioritizing immigration violations and actions thought unfriendly by the Trump administration. (This might be a great time to abscond with your company’s pension funds and move to Aruba.)
And, of course, as a nation we have many enemies – foreign and domestic. Yes, we’re almost a generation removed from Oklahoma City and 9/11 but the world is still full of bad people. When I studied terrorism at St. Louis University back in the 1970’s the professor made a point that unexpected violence generates more fear and lasting damage than traditional warfare. Making people afraid to walk past an unattended bag on the sidewalk can be more effective than sending bombers over a city.
Now most of us won’t fall victim to a terror attack and I hope “food borne outbreaks” remain rare. Just remember, true security remains a myth. Everyday we’re pretty much on our own.
Be careful.
Glenn